"I just saw ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET and a couple weeks ago A YEAR IN THE TRENCHES! Both performances were Fantastic! The actors were so amazing and can not wait to see more shows! East Lynne Theater Company puts on the Best Shows. Should be on your to do list when you visit Cape May!" - a recent 5-STAR revue from whysper333, Cape May, NJ on TripAdvisor

A cast of four bring the lyrics of the incredible Dorothy Fields to life in this world premiere revue, with Charles Gilbert as musical director and accompanist, and Karen Cleighton as choreographer, under the direction of Gayle Stahlhuth. Gilbert last worked with ELTC in Rodgers’ Romance, and the company is thrilled to have him back. During her almost 50-year career, Dorothy Fields wrote lyrics for more than 400 songs; worked on 15 Broadway musicals, sometimes as book writer and/or lyricist, and almost 30 Hollywood films. In 1927, she received sole billing as lyricist for a revue at Harlem’s Cotton Club that featured Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. With composer Jimmy McHugh back in the 1920s, she wrote such songs as “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” Her film music with Jerome Kern included them winning the Academy Award for Best Song in 1936 for “The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time. Cy Coleman, twenty-years her junior, asked Fields to write the lyrics for his music for the Broadway shows Sweet Charity (1965) and Seesaw (1973). Other collaborators with whom she worked include: Sigmund Romberg, Morton Gould, Arthur Schwartz, Harold Arlen, Albert Hague, Fritz Kreisler, Max Steiner, Oscar Levant, Harry Warren, and Burton Lane.

MEET THE CAST

Joilet F. Harris is thrilled to make her East Lynne debut! Recent theater: A Doll’s House (Anna), Gypsy (Mazeppa), Because of Winn Dixie (Gloria), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Miss Jones), A Raisin in the Sun (Lena), Ella (Fitzgerald) in Ella the Musical, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Nell), Caroline or Change (Caroline – Barrymore Award for Best Actress), Hairspray (Motormouth Maybelle), Tulipomania, Finian’s Rainbow (Lead Sharecropper), Damn Yankees(Doris), Crowns (Mabel & Mother Shaw), It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues (Gretha), and many, many more. TV: The Wire (Detective Caroline- 2 seasons), Law & Order SVU, Hack, Philly. Film: The Perfect Witness, Animal Factory, Beloved, Maximum Risk, 12 Monkeys, Rocky V and others. Cabaret Series: “Ella”, “Mahalia, “From Me To You With Love; “Joy” To The World; Love, Joy Peace and a Few Lil-isms; A Knight With A Wilson. To God Be the Glory! Member Actors' Equity Association

Scott Harrison is delighted to make his East Lynne Theater Company debut this summer with On the Sunny Side of the Street and Arsenic and Old Lace! Recent credits include: Washington Stage Guild: Widowers Houses (Harry Trench); Theatre Under The Stars: Rocky Horror Show (Brad Majors); Arena Stage: Fiddler on the Roof (Mendel); Adventure Theatre MTC: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical (Dad); Pittsburgh Musical Theatre: Saturday Night Fever (Double-J); Signature Theatre: Girlstar (U/S); NextStop Theatre: City of Angels (Jimmy Powers), Into the Woods (Rapunzel’s Prince),Good Good Trouble on Bad Bad Island; Toby's Dinner Theatre: 1776, Into the Woods. More at www.scottharrisonactor.com. Member Actors' Equity Association

​Annemarie Rosano is so pleased to be making her East Lynne debut with On the Sunny Side of the Street​! Favorite credits include Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Louise in Gypsy, and Anne in La Cage aux Folles. This career princess has also performed in Walt Disney World and on Disney Cruise Line, and is an original founding member of vintage entertainment group, America's Sweethearts based in New York City. Various national commercials. NYU Steinhardt. @annemarierosano Member Actors' Equity Association​

​​Melissa Zimmerman has performed at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Luminato Festival in Toronto, the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Studio 54, the D-Lounge, and caroled across the tri-state area with the Manhattan Holiday Carolers. Theatre credits include If You Give A Pig A Pancake (TheatreworksUSA), Kiss Me, Kate (Light Opera Works), The Teapot Scandals (Porchlight Music Theatre) and Shout! The Mod Musical (Downstairs Cabaret Theatre). She has loved developing new musicals through the BMI Workshop and NYU’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. When she’s not performing, she is baking cupcakes with cookies inside (www.ItsACuppie.com). BA: Northwestern University. Proud member of AEA.www.melissazimmerman.netMember Actors' Equity Association

BIOS FOR CHARLES GILBERT, KAREN CLEIGHTON, AND DOROTHY FIELDS

Charles Gilbert (Music Director/Accompanist) is an educator, writer, composer and director who has spent nearly forty years making provocative original work for the musical stage and training young artists for professional careers in musical theater. He headed the Musical Theater Program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia from its inception in 1990 until 2008, and served from 2008 to 2013 as Director of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at UArts. East Lynne Theater Company audiences will recall his work as music director and accompanist for Rodgers' Romance in the summer of 2016, and he is delighted to return for another season in Cape May. He is a two-time Barrymore Award nominee for his music direction at the Arden Theater in Philadelphia. Other music directing credits includeThe Three Maries (Prince Theater, premiere production), The Fantasticks (People’s Light and Theater Company), The Middle of Nowhere (Prince Music Theater), Cabaret (Gretna Theater), Forever Plaid (Newmarket Cabaret Theater) and The Dinosaur Musical (Arden Theater, premiere production). Charlie is composer in residence for Enchantment Theater Company, where his most recent work includes My Father's Dragon (national tour) and The Brementown Musicians (Philadelphia area tour). His works for the musical stage include Assassins (1979, source of the idea for the Sondheim musical of the same name) and Gemini the Musical (with Albert Innaurato, Philadelphia 2004, New York 2007), and he was Musical Theater Coordinator for Kevin Smith’s 2002 film Jersey Girl. www.chasgilbert.com

Karen Cleighton (Choreographer) earned a BFA in Dance Education at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was on the faculty in the Musical Theater and Dance Departments. She also taught jazz and tap at Temple University in the Musical Theater Program, and is currently teaching at Chartertech High School for The Performing Arts in Somers Point, NJ in the Dance and Musical Theater Programs. Karen's choreography has been seen at several universities, including DeSales University and The University of The Arts, for shows such as Oliver, Crazy For You, A My Name is Alice, Berlin to Broadway, Bat Boy, Nine, and Legally Blonde. Professional work includes Thoroughly Modern Millie (which landed her a Barrymore nomination for Best Choreography in a Musical) and Spelling Bee. In her "spare time," she works at various entertainment companies providing dancers, choreographing, producing shows, and DJ-ing. She is also a certified Zumba and Spin instructor.

​ Dorothy Fields was born on July 15, 1905 in Allenhurst, NJ, the youngest daughter of Lew M. Fields and Rose Harris. Lew Fields, with Joe Weber, comprised the famous comedy team Weber and Fields that dominated the stage for decades. In 1904, the duo split up to pursue producing and theater. They did, as a team, continue to make special appearances on the stage, radio, and in film. In 1923, Dorothy graduated from Benjamin Franklin School for Girls in New York City, where she excelled in English, drama, and basketball, and her poems were published in the school’s magazine. After her father quashed her attempt to land an acting job with a stock company in Yonkers, she worked as a teacher and laboratory assistant, while continuing to submit her verses to magazines. Since Lew first-hand knew the pitfalls of the entertainment industry, he didn’t want any of his children to try to make a living in theater. Still, Dorothy’s older brothers, Herbert and Joseph, ended up working in theater and film. Joseph began writing screenplays in 1931, and one of his early Broadway successes in 1940 was My Sister Eileen, for which he wrote the screenplay in 1943, and transformed it into the book for the musical version, Wonderful Town, in 1954. Herbert began his career as a stage director, but switched to writing books for musicals, teaming with Dorothy on several occasions. In 1926, Dorothy met composer J. Fred Coots, who suggested that they work together, but the collaboration didn’t work. (Coots later wrote “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”) The following year, she received sole billing as lyricist for a revue at Harlem’s Cotton Club that featured Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. Coots introduced Dorothy to composer Jimmy McHugh, and a decade-long collaboration was born. Their first song, “Collegiana,” a bouncy fox-trot published in 1928, was recorded by Rudy Vallee and others. Their song “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” was dropped from Revels of 1928, but found a home alongside their “Diga Diga Doo,” in the all African-American hit, Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1928. In the same year, Dorothy worked with her brother Herbert on the short-lived musical Hello Daddy. With McHugh in 1930, she wrote two memorable songs, “Exactly Like You” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street” for International Revue, which flopped at the box office. From 1930 to 1939, Dorothy wrote songs for movie musicals in Hollywood, first with McHugh, with whom she wrote “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “Dinner at Eight,” and then with Jerome Kern. Dorothy and Kern worked together on such films as Roberta, where the world first heard “Lovely to Look At,” (1935), and Swing Time that included “A Fine Romance” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Song in 1936. On July 15, 1939, Dorothy married David Eli Lahm, a clothing manufacturer. They had two children and remained together until he died in 1958. Also in 1939, she returned to New York to work with composer Arthur Schwartz on the Broadway musical Stars in Your Eyes. She then collaborated with her brother Herbert on the books for three Cole Porter hits: Let’s Face It (1941), Something for the Boys (1943), and Mexican Hayride (1944). Producer Michael Todd asked Herbert to write the book and Dorothy the lyrics for Sigmund Romberg’s music in Up in Central Park. Set in the mid-19th century, it’s about Boss Tweed’s (played by Noah Berry) attempts to take kickbacks from contractors during the construction of Central Park. It was the hit of the 1944-45 season, which also included Carousel and On the Town. The show played 504 performances at the Century Theatre. In 1948, it was turned into a film starring Deanna Durbin and Vincent Price, but it wasn’t successful. In 1946, Dorothy pitched the idea of a musical based on Annie Oakley to Oscar Hammerstein, who agreed to produce it with Jerome Kern’s music and Dorothy’s lyrics. When Kern died before they started working on it, Irving Berlin was hired to replace him. Berlin wrote both music and lyrics for Annie Get Your Gun, while Dorothy and Herbert wrote the book. It ran for 1,147 performances, with Ethel Merman starring as Annie. Dorothy wrote the lyrics with music by Morton Gould for the American Revolutionary War musical, Arms and the Girl. Based on The Pursuit of Happiness, a comedy by Armina Marshall and Lawrence Langer, the musical’s book was written by Dorothy and Herbert Fields, in collaboration with Roeben Mamoulian, who also directed. It opened on Feb. 2, 1950 at the 46th Street Theatre, but closed after 134 performances. The following year, Dorothy wrote the lyrics to Arthur Schwartz’s tunes for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She scored two films with composer Harold Arlen, Mr. Imperium (1951) and The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953), then returned to Broadway to work with Schwartz again on By the Beautiful Sea (1954). Herbert and Dorothy Fields were working on Redhead with composer Albert Hague, when Herbert died during out-of-town tryouts. The show opened on February 5, 1959 at the 46th Street Theatre, starring Gwen Verdon and Richard Kiley, directed by Bob Fosse. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Cy Coleman, twenty years Dorothy’s junior, asked her to write the lyrics for his music for Sweet Charity, while Neil Simon wrote the book. It was the biggest hit of the 1965-1966 season, earning Tony nominations for Best Musical, Best Composer, and Best Lyricist. In 1971, she became the first woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her last show, Seesaw (1973), also written with Coleman, was based on William Gibson’s play Two for Seesaw. Tony nominations included Best Musical and Best Score, but the only Tonys won were for best choreography (Michael Bennett) and Best Featured Performance in a Musical (Tommy Tune.) On March 28, 1974, she watched a rehearsal of the touring production of Seesaw. She died later that day from a heart attack at her home in New York City. Scratch a lyricist and you’ll find a genuine poet underneath. Dorothy Fields kept notebooks in which she copied passages from Dryden, Shaw, and Thoreau; unusual synonyms for commonly used words; humorous proverbs; rhyming phrases; odd-sounding words; and anything else that might come in handy in writing a lyric. She was highly disciplined. Typically, she would spend eight weeks researching, discussing, and making notes on a project, before settling into an 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily work routine. She worked at a bridge table in her apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and preferred to write with pencil on a yellow legal pad. During her 48-year career, she co-wrote more than 400 songs and worked on 15 musicals and at least 26 movies. Collaborators so far unmentioned include: Fritz Kreisler, Max Steiner, Oscar Levant, Harry Warren, and Burton Lane.

ELTC's programs are made possible in part through funding from The NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of The National Endowment for the Arts, The NJ Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism, the generosity of our Season Partners, and the generosity of many patrons.